Another Milestone Achieved: Priceless 90, Gill Continues to Shine in Their Rising Career

Mumbai: The role of a Test opener is undoubtedly challenging, but a young Shubman Gill proved himself more than capable during his debut in the unforgettable comeback series win in Australia on the 2020-21 tour. Leading the charge with a brilliant 91 in the historic Gabba victory, Gill's impressive record of four fifties and two centuries in his first 16 Tests speaks volumes about his talent and potential.

That was why it was surprising when he opted to drop to No.3, a slot Cheteshwar Pujara had made his own with display of steel and patience that allowed the rest of the batters to flourish. With sparse returns from his first 11 innings in that spot, it even started to look if Gill had given up a good thing with Yashasvi Jaiswal rapidly establishing himself as Rohit Sharma’s opening partner.

The tide turned with his 104 in the second innings against England in the Visakhapatnam Test, and Gill hasn’t looked back since. Time and again the 25-year-old has been put in challenging situations, and Saturday morning was another example of the demanding nature of his job on a turning Wankhede Stadium track.

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli had faltered at the end of Day 1 of the third Test against New Zealand. The sudden collapse, losing three wickets for six runs, had left the hosts reeling at 86/4. Gill had watched the madness from the other end. Already 2-0 down, a lot was on the line as India resumed on Saturday morning. India had a long tail but the main hope rested on Gill and batting partner Rishabh Pant.

To his credit, Gill performed like he did against England early in the year, batting with great maturity to score a priceless 90 and keep India in the game.

Playing spin is a batter’s main test in the subcontinent. In the last three Tests against England, he passed that test with flying colours getting two hundreds and two fifties for an aggregate of 452 runs (average 56.50). The Wankhede track is more challenging because of the bounce on offer. The stylish Punjab batter though passed the spin test in some style to stabilise the innings.

Though he missed out on a hundred, caught off left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel, Gill was highly satisfied because of the situation the team was in and the tough batting conditions.

“It’s one of the better knocks I have played in Test cricket,” he said after play on Saturday. “I’ve been having a great year. In the last match I got two starts (30 and 23), but was not able to convert them. But I was very confident going into this innings, I had no pressure.”

What shone through was how he paced his innings. Gill raced to 45 off 57 balls, but after he was dropped by substitute fielder Mark Chapman he adopted a cautious approach, the next 45 runs coming off 89 balls.

The key from team’s point of view is the art of building partnerships. In his 96-run stand with Pant he played second fiddle while the latter took on the bowlers. “We were just having fun, it was all about trying to put them (Kiwi bowlers) under pressure because then it is difficult for them to be able to bowl in that area consistently. We’ve seen if they don’t bowl in areas where it is difficult to defend consistently, it is hard for them to be able to contain runs,” Gill said.

The innings was also important in terms of India’s batting transition with Gill, Jaiswal and Pant expected to take over from Virat Kohli and Rohit.

Gill hasn’t looked back since that skilful second innings century in Visakhapatnam (104 off 147 balls in a total of 255), to help India level the series 1-1. A fine second innings 91 followed in the third Test win at Rajkot. In the first Test against Bangladesh, he underlined his quality with another superb second innings hundred.

The second Test at Pune last week was a rare outing when he couldn’t make a difference. Preparing for the Mumbai Test, Gill thus went back to the aspects of his game that gave him success against England. “Leading up to this Test, it was all about working on the areas I have worked on before. In the England series, I was batting at my best against spinners. So just to be able to go back into that mindset and what my positions were while playing spinners then. That’s what I was trying to replicate before this match.”

Gill may well have to produce another second innings gem to get India home on Sunday.